Inking punch



1929- I E. F. GRAF 1,738,891

INKING PUNCH Filed Dec. 21. 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Patented [lee EDWARD F. GRAB, OF GRAND RAPIDS-",

LEAF 00., F GRAND RAPIDS,

llitlICWlItBl-AN, .l-ildSIG-NOR T0 PRO'UIDEFIT LOOSE- MICE QIIGAN, COMPUTATION 013 MICHIGAN INKING' PUNGH Application filed December 531, 192?. Serial Ito. 241,711;

This invention relates to an inking punch. by :zneans of which figures or like characters 121a y be pressed into metal and the depressions inked. l Vhen small figures or letters are stamped into metal, the depressions may be filled with ink and then by wiping oil the flat surface of the metal the depressions remain tilled. But with larger letters or he'- ures, with correspondingly wider and larger depressions, wiping the ink results in the wip- Ling cloth or any other material used entering; such depressions and removing the ink therefrom so that the process described for the smaller characters is not practical for the larger characters.

it is desirable, in a great many instances to provide metal indicators with characters pro e .d or stamped therein. and inked so as to show at a considerable distance, in which case the characters must be quite large so as to be easily read at a distance. lit is a primary object and purpose of the present invention to p rovide a punch which may be used to stamp and simultaneously ink relative large characters in metal. A further object of the invention is to stamp said characters at proper spaced apart distances in alignment in a metal plate and to provide means for that end, A still further object of the invention is to con-- struct a punch in Which the characters to be stamped may be readily selected so that any desired series may be stamped in properly spaced alignment. litany other objects and purposes than those stated will be apparent understanding of the invention will be had from the following descriptioin'taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which,

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the of my invention.

Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal, section therethrough.

Fig. 3 is a plan View with parts broken away and in section to better show the con machine struction.

the manner in which a series of stops are r utilized to etiiect the proper spacing of the characters stamped in the metal, and

his. 6 is a fragmentary enlarged perspective view, pa rtly in section, showing how the inked characters appear when pressed or stamped in metal.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in the dil 'ent figures of the draw s.

in. the construction, a suitable heavy base 1 of metal. is used from each end of which spaced 2 extend the same being ut'.'.zed in bolting; the base in place on the bed of the punch press. Near the edge of the base and adjacent each end thereof lnackets 3 are peri ently secured the same being of l..shape 1 ttheoi 'and forwardly extendin ends of the lrracln es circular inking plates 4 are mounted. Said plates are provided with downwa til I stems 5 which pass through c in the brackets 3 and are roin said brackets by s1 .c-

will

properly spaced inp; sleeves 6 around the stems 5. llt is evidei the plates el be In a horizontal plane and turn freely about vertical axes of the stems A. heavy bar '2' of metal, rectangular in cross section, lies above and is secured to the base 1. lit is located lengtl wise of the base and extends substantially the full length thereof. In the front of the bar 7 and spaced a short distance therefrom is a second bar 8 rectangular in cross section which, near one end (the left hand end shown. in Figs. 1 and 3), has a plurality of cylindrical openings 9 made therein from the rear side of the bar 8 toward the front. Cylindrical stop pins 10 fit freely in said openings 9 and at their inner ends are connected to rods 11 which or:- tend forwardly through reduced openings in the bar 8 to the front side of said bar and are then turned upwardly at right angles making fingers engaging handles 12. Coiled springs 13 within the openings 9 are disposed about the rods 11 between the bottoms of said openings and the inner ends of the stop pins 10, the tendency of which is to move the stop pins untiltheir outer ends come against the front bar 7 previously described. A guide plate 14 of sheet metal having slots 15 therein is fastened to the upper side of the bar 8 and ex tends forwardly therefrom, the vertical end portions 12 of the rods 11 passing through said slots. This is best shown in Fig. 4.

Associated with the constructiondescribed is a punch. t comprises aheavy head 16 of metal from which a vertical shank 17 projects upwardly to fit an opening in the lower end of the ram 18 of a punch press. The usual set screw 19 threads through a sideofthe ram 18 and against the shank 17 so as to hold the head 16 in fixed position with respect to the ram. The under Side ofthe head 1.6.is formed with a concave recess 20 the axis of which is parallel to the length of the base 1. Two spaced apart brackets 21 of metal arefixed to and extend downwardly from the head 1? said recess between which a punch wheel 22 is located and rotatably imountedon the reduced end 123 of a short shaft 24 which is rotatably mounted in and extends between the brackets 21. It will be noted that the brackets 21 fit in suitable recesses 21 in the under side of the block 16 and that the punch wheel 22 has a curvature such that it corresponds exactly to the curvature of the concave recess 21, whereby the punch wheel, at the shoulders indicated at 22 comes snugly againstthe head 16in said recess 20, providing a largebearing surface to withstand the force'to which the punch wheel is subjected in the operation of the machine. l vithout I these bearings there would be a substantially surety that the brackets 21 or the e d23 of the shaft 24 would be broken or bent in the operation of themachine. Also between the hearing surfaces at 22 in the lower side of the head 16 a groove 20 is cut for the free passage of the PllllCllClldlflCtQi'S which are located on the surface of the wheel. as hereafter deicrib'ed, no pressure being applied to the same by reason of the bearing contact of thepunch wheel against said head 16. On the curved face of the punch wheel 22 raised characters 25 are formed inzthis case consisting of the Arabic numerals from 0 to 9 inclusive. On the front vertical face of the wheel these ninnerals appear, as indicated at 26, so as to indicate to one standing in front of the device the position of any numeral: on the curved iii-face of the wheel. The wheel is further provided at its rear vertical surface with a plurality of spaced apart recesses 27, substantially of semi-circular form, there being one for each character on the wheel. A cartridge-like container 28 is threaded through an opening in the rear bracket 21 and contains a coiled spring 29 which presses a ball catch 30 against the rear face of the wheel and into recesses 27 when the recesses come to the ball. This is to rcleaseably hold the wheel in any desired position with a desired charactor which is to be punched in metal at the lower side of the wheel.

The shaft 24 of course may be turned by extending the same directly outward and equipping it with a hand wheel. It is preferred to have the means for turning the wheel located at one side of the axis of the shaft 24. To accomplish this a bar 31 of metal is formed at one end with angularolf-set which is permanently secured to the front bracket 21 with the reduced end 23 of the short shaft 24 passing through it, as shown in Fig. 4. Bar 31 accordinglyextends forwardly and to one side as shown. At its outer end it is bent at right angles as indicated at 33. A shaft 34,

.equippedat its outer end with a hand wheel 35, passes through the part 33 and is joined to he outer end of the short shaft 34 by a universal joint 36. Byturning hand the wheel 35 the punch wheel 32 may be shifted to different positions and to any of the ten positions which the particular wheel shown has.

On the frontand rear side of the head 16 two arms 37 are pivotally connected at their upper inner ends by suitable pivot screws 38, the arms diverging downwardly and outwardly therefrom. At each side of the head the arms 37 carry an ink roller 39. The pairs of arms at the front side of the head are connected by a coiled tension spring 40 the tendency of which is to move the rollers inwardly so as to bring the rollers against the characters carried on the curved face of the wheel 22. Accordingly, when the ram 13 is in elevated position, as shown in Fi 1, the inking rollers 39 come against the punch wheel 22 and when the wheel is rotated to bring; a character 25 to its operative position at the lower side of the wheel 22 the characters are supplied with ink from the inking rollers. On the down stroke of the ram 18 the rollers come against the upper sides of the inking plates 4, as shown in Fi 2, and the movement causes :the rollers to turn about their axes and also causes the plates 4 to turn a short distance about their vertical axes as the major portions of the rollers are located forward of the vertical axes of the plates 4. Vith each operation of the punch press the rollers are inked and the operator of the device by turning the wheel 22 is able to transfer the ink to the characters 25, supplying them with ink which in turn is stamped or impressed into the bottoms of the characters stamped in metal.

The metal member which is stamped and inked with the characters, as illustrated fragmentary in Fig. 6, comprises two sections 41 and 42 lying at right angles to each other.

The section 41 is located over the bar 7 and against it while the section 42, located in a vertical plane, lies a ainst the front side the bar 7. On the downward stroke of the punch press ram 18, the character 25 which is at the lowest point on the wheel 22 comes against the section 41 and presses recesses in the metal which make the selected character. The ink at the outer surf of punch 25 stays at the bottom of the recesses made in the metal section 41.

The end of the section 42, when the first character is to be formed, comes against the stop pin 10 farthest to the right. The handle 12 associated with said pin in then pulled outward moving the pin out of the way and the member on which the character printing is being done is moved to the left until it engages against the next stop pin 10. This locates the section 41 in a proper position to receive the imprint of the second character. At tl e same time the pin 10 which, has been drawn back, when released, presses against the front of the vertical section 42 and holds it snugly against the bar 7. With succeeding operations the consecutive stop pins 10 are drawn out and the metal member receiving the impressions is moved to the left, this properly spacing the characters which are formed and making the lie in alignment. Of course if it is desired to space the characters farther apart the plate can be moved over greater distances by withdrawing addition stop pins, 10, as is evident.

While the punch wheel is shown as carrying the Arabic numerals, it is evident that a great variety of punch wheels carrying different characters may be utilized and the invention is in no sense limited to the one type of wheel shown.

This device has proved very practical and successful for pressing different characters indicated int-o metal and inking the same at the bottom of the depressions where the characters are so large that the previously used method of wiping ink from the metal after its application thereto is impractical. It is possible to make a large variety of indicating numbers it being easy for the operator to turn the wheel 22 so as to select the various characters needed. The invention is defined in the appended claims and is to be considered comprehensive of all forms of structure coming within their scope.

I claim:

1. A construction of the class described comprising, a base, a bar rectangular in cross section located at the upper side and lying len gthwise of said base, against which a sheet metal member of angle formation may be placed with one leg lying against the upper side and the other against the front side of the said bar, a second bar located parallel to and in front of the first bar, a plurality of spaced apart stop means movably mounted on the second bar at the rear side thereof, spring means tending to move said stop pins rearwardly, means for manually moving any one of said pins independent of the others in a forward direction, and a vertically reciprocable punch located over. the first bar and carrying a character which may be l1l1 )1QSSG(l on the downward movement of the punch into the horizontal leg of said sheet metal member, one end of the vertical leg of said sheet metal member being engaged against one of the stop pins.

2. In a construction of the class described, a base, a horizontal bar mounted at the upper side lengthwise of said base, a second bar paralleling the first bar located on said base in front of said first bar, said second bar having a plurality of horizontal openings at its rear side spaced apart from each other, pins loosely mounted in said openings, rods connected one to each pin extending through the bar to the front side thereof and being then turned upwardly at right angles, a spring around each of said bars within each of said openings in the second bar, a plate connected at the upper side of the second bar having a plurality of slots therein through which the upturned ends of said rods pass, and a vertically reciprocable punch mounted directly over the first bar and carrying a character at its lower side, substantially as described.

3. In a construction of the class described, a support against which a sheet metal member may be placed, a vertically reciprocable punch located directly over the support, said punch carrying a plurality of characters, means for manually operating the punch to bring a se lected character to lower position so as to impress it into the sheet metal member on downward movement of the punch, means for inking the characters when the punch is in upper position and upon manual operation of the punch to bring the characters to said inking means, and means against which one end of the sheet metal member may engage for locating; said member in proper position on the support that it may receive the impressions from d punch in al cument with and at properly spaced distances from each other.

4. A punch of the class described comprising. a head having a concave recess therein at its under side, supporting brackets attached to and depending from said head and a punch wheel rotatably mounted on and between said brackets and having punch characters projecting from its outer grooved surface, said head at its lower side being formed with a groove for the passage of said characters and at each side of the groove having bearing contact with the adjacent portions of the punch wheel outside of said punch characters.

5. A punch press of the class described comprising, a supporting head, a punch. wheel having a shaft extending through said wheel andmounted on said head, whereby the wheel is rotatably supportedon said vhead and the periphery of said wheel being arranged eontiguous t0 the surface of said head, whereby the periphery. of the wheel and head are brought into engagement when pressure is exerted upon said wheel thereby relieving the strain on said shaft.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

' EDWARD F. GRAF. 

